The emperor has made it so clear and firm that even if the ministers still have objections and opinions, they can only keep it to themselves.
Needless to say, Wang Zaijin, Xu Guangqi and others were the largest imperialists and fully supported the emperor. Naturally, they could not oppose him at a critical moment.
After all, for more than a year, His Majesty's decisions, whether risky or stable, have not made any mistakes. They were completely within his calculations.
"Your Majesty, since this is a delaying strategy, do you want to issue an imperial edict or document to order Xiong Tingbi and Yuan Keli to temporarily withdraw their troops to show their sincerity and stabilize the old slave?"
Zhang Ruitu, the Minister of Rites, finally spoke up. After all, he, the Minister of Rites, must be involved in the peace negotiation process and candidates.
At this time, he must obtain more peace terms and more room for himself and his subordinates.
"No need, the strategic situation of encirclement on three sides is a powerful situation that I have worked hard to form. The three-pronged army must not be reduced to a single soldier, let alone a shortage of food!"
"Da Sima, you will draft a document later and send it six hundred miles to Liaodong and Yuan Keyi. Tell them clearly my intentions and plans, and let them act accordingly. They will know what to do!"
As long as the army was not gathered for a decisive battle, Wang Zaijin could accept anything, so he accepted the order happily.
Zhu Youxiao looked at Cheng Guoxiang with a bitter look on his face. For a moment, he didn't know how to speak. After all, it was true that the treasury had no money. No matter what, Zhu Youxiao could not conjure money and food out of thin air.
"Da Sinong, today is different from the past. The war in Liaodong is our top priority in the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the responsibility of the Ministry of Revenue is to do our best to ensure good logistics and stabilize the morale of the troops on the front line!"
"The second step is the disaster relief in Shaanxi and Shandong provinces. Shaanxi has stabilized a little, so we just have to deal with the aftermath. The people who suffered the disaster will all use work-for-work relief to let them survive!"
"From my point of view, the weather changes in recent years have been extremely abnormal. I am afraid that a natural disaster that occurs once in hundreds of years is about to happen."
"The land in the northwest is already barren. If natural disasters continue and man-made disasters are added, the people will not be able to survive at all. Therefore, the Ministry of Household Affairs must set aside a batch of food to cope with changes."
"I have made statistics and plans with the officials of various departments, and have set aside five hundred thousand taels of silver and one million stones of grain and rice as backup to meet unexpected needs!"
Cheng Guoxiang is famous for his careful planning, and he is also an extremely dignified and noble person. Zhu Youxiao is quite relieved that the treasury is entrusted to him.
"Your Majesty is absolutely right. I think that before the 20th year of Wanli in our Ming Dynasty, every province and every place had a bumper harvest. It could be said that it was extremely prosperous, and every household had a surplus of food!"
"But since the 20th year of Wanli, the weather has become more and more weird and unpredictable. It's only mid-October, and there is already heavy snow in the capital, and even the canals are frozen."
"The beginning of spring will not be until April, and the people's farming season has changed greatly. They were supposed to get two crops a year, but now they can barely get one crop a year. How can we not be short of food in the Ming Dynasty!"
When Song Yingxing was in Jiangxi, he already felt that the climate was unusual.
The south has a warm climate and abundant rainfall. Huguang is also known as the world's granary and a land of plenty.
But in the past few years, even Huguang's grain harvest has been reduced a lot, and even Dongting Lake has thick ice, let alone the north.
"Da Sikong, there is no need to be too sad. As the saying goes, man does not fight against the sky. If God wants to do this, what can we do?"
"As long as the whole country does its best and unites as one, the situation may be able to be eased!"
"The cabinet has drafted an order to order the Shaanxi government and the refugees who are providing work-for-work relief to all focus on repairing canals, maintaining fields and reclaiming wasteland. Those passes, fortresses and cities are of secondary importance!"
"Da Sikong, all the officials from the Ministry of Industry can be sent out to lead the local government and people to build more water conservancy projects. I hope that in Shaanxi in the coming year, there will not be so many people leaving their homes and begging to escape."
"I understand that I will select capable officials as soon as possible and send fast horses to the Qin Dynasty to carry out His Majesty's decree!"
Since the last time Zhu Youxiao merged the Bingzhan Division and other factories, the Ministry of Industry has had fewer errands, and its courage has suddenly become lighter.
But Zhu Youxiao didn't know how to raise idle people. He kept them in the capital to worry about things all day long and scolded him, so he might as well send them on a business trip to do some practical work.
"Speaking of the food shortage, I have several food crops here that come from the West. Compared with wheat and rice, these Western food crops seem to be more suitable for planting in the northwest!"
As soon as Xu Guangqi opened his mouth, Zhu Youxiao knew exactly which grain crops he was talking about.
When the other officials heard this, they immediately became curious and focused their attention on Xu Guangqi, expecting him to explain in detail.
"Your Majesty, the crops I mentioned are called sweet potato, corn and potato respectively. These are the names given by Westerners, so I will continue to use these names."
"Your Majesty, the yields of corn and sweet potatoes are extremely high, even to astonishing levels. And this potato is extremely drought-resistant and cold-resistant. It can also be grown in the northwest and Liaodong."
"I have personally tested it. No matter what the weather or harsh conditions are, as long as you plant this potato, it will more or less grow."
"Therefore, I believe that in order to survive such a disaster year, the cultivation of these three crops must be widely promoted, especially in the northwest. I believe that they can be fully promoted this year."
In fact, as early as the Wanli period, the knowledge and seeds of these crops had entered the Ming Dynasty, but they had never been taken seriously by the government and the court.
Only those who really understand will vigorously promote and plant it.
For example, Chen Zhenlong took the risk and brought back a sweet potato vine across the sea. After he learned the value and benefits of sweet potatoes, he devoted his life to it.
During the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, sweet potato was promoted nationwide, surpassing rice and wheat and became one of the crops with the highest planting rate and consumption rate in the Qing Dynasty. Chen Zhenlong and his family were indispensable, and even his descendants have continued to persevere.
It was his fifth-generation grandson who traveled all over the country, posting notices everywhere to explain the various benefits of sweet potato to the government. After the Manchu and Qing court learned about it, they vigorously promoted it.
The so-called prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong was nothing more than a prosperous age of sweet potatoes.
Among the people at that time, there was a rumor that sweet potatoes were a staple food for half a year.
There are also records in history books that if the common people can survive, seventy-eight times out of ten they will eat only potatoes.
This is also one of the reasons why the population of the Manchu Qing Dynasty exploded during the Qianlong period, and the main reason why there was no major famine like the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the late Ming Dynasty.
But as the saying goes, there are advantages and disadvantages. Although sweet potatoes can keep people alive, they do not nourish people. Eating too much of them is also very harmful to people.
The reason why the people of the Qing Dynasty have no energy and are as skinny as a walking zombie is precisely because they eat too many sweet potatoes and potatoes.